Popular Heritage and Cultural Convergence in Arab and African Cultures
Souad Khalil | Libya
Popular heritage is a true mirror that reflects the identity and collective memory of peoples. It represents the essence of life experiences, beliefs, customs, and arts that generations have inherited over the ages. Through this heritage, societies remain connected to their roots despite the rapid transformations of time.
In both the Arab and African worlds, popular heritage showcases a rich diversity in cultural expressions, reflecting the multiplicity of environments, languages, and beliefs. At the same time, it reveals a deep unity in human values, such as generosity, heroism, and a sense of belonging to the land and community. Folk tales, proverbs, dances, traditional crafts, and other forms of expression form bridges of communication between Arab and African peoples, embodying a shared spirit despite apparent differences.
In this article, we will highlight the importance of popular heritage, ways to preserve it, and its role in enhancing identity and cultural unity in the face of globalization.
Popular heritage, as defined, encompasses the collection of customs, traditions, knowledge, and arts passed down from generation to generation informally. It reflects the lifestyle and beliefs of people in their local environments. This heritage is characterized by the diversity of its elements, which include stories and legends, folk proverbs, songs and dances, traditional music, clothing, food, handicrafts, and even daily rituals such as weddings and religious occasions.
In both Arab and African cultures, popular heritage appears as a vast reservoir of wisdom and human experience, where each dance or folk proverb carries a story that expresses social realities and establishes collective identity.
This is the widely recognized definition of popular heritage. However, in a study written by Helmy Shaarawi on the diversity and unity in Arab and African cultures.
“And due to the length of this study, we will divide it into two articles for those interested.”
He begins with a reflection on how humanity had barely recovered from the specter of the Cold War and the threat of weapons of mass destruction before facing the horrors of renewed regional conflicts. While we may have exaggerated the ideological dimensions of the former, we are once again suffering from a scale of disruption in dealing with the ideal cultural references, ignoring their potential for accepting the “Other” while respecting their diversity.
Moreover, we often push our policies toward forms of exchange and unity through this very diversity, instead of viewing diversity as a form of fragmentation and division. It is noteworthy how much is written about the dialogue of cultures and civilizations at a time when mechanisms and narratives of conflict and tension are being exported.
In this context, it may be easier for us to trace forms of tension back to the dynamics between the North and South or the complications of central hegemony. However, this is not the focus of our discussion here. Instead, we will adopt a more optimistic approach to examining cultural relations within the South-South framework, as I am confident that the future of humanity will ultimately be shaped in this arena.
The potential for encounter at different cultural levels, particularly in the realm of popular culture, is crucial. If we explore some elements of this culture with deeper understanding and goodwill, we may avoid being trapped in the hellish culture wars that are currently unfolding. This serves as the introduction to Helmy Shaarawi’s research.
First: Globalization and Major Cultures
One of the most significant effects of the centrality of globalization is the refusal to accept human diversity. The center of Western culture, which we have known to be linked to modernization or change by European standards, has shifted. This shift is also connected to the export of Orientalist and colonial anthropological narratives, which have often shaped judgments about our heritage and cultural elements. As a result, we now find ourselves within the framework of American centrality, which seeks not dialogue but imposes the inevitability of Americanizing the world.
Consequently, we remain in a strenuous struggle and a state of confrontation rather than in dialogue or consensus. Within the concept of Western culture, at least, discussions of modernization and the roles of the middle classes have taken place. National culture and popular heritage emerged as unifying and dialogical elements, whether under the framework of the nation-state or in the context of movements such as the Arab, African, Islamic, Slavic, or Indian unions, among others.
This was a period when powerful forces confronted the negation of national cultures and the severance from national histories, as attempted by certain well-known colonial schools. In this atmosphere, culture defended national unity or opposed Western influences, with a liberatory stance confronting conservative ones.
Amid these dynamics, elements of conflict sometimes emerged between certain intermediate cultures—if we may call them that—and surrounding subcultures. For instance, the issues surrounding Arab culture in relation to some African cultures or the challenges faced by Swahili and Hausa cultures with their neighboring cultures, and so on.
The waves of national challenges that emerged after World War II were able, to some extent, to confront the Western globalization of modernization. Although they did not contradict the projects of the nation-state during that period, we can identify major propositions put forth by this revitalization movement in its engagements with Western culture—sometimes against it and at other times against the North.
The concept of popular heritage and popular culture evolved significantly beyond the frameworks of anthropology and Orientalism. The centers of this heritage multiplied across the Arab world and Africa in direct response to the established centers of anthropological studies. Regional and international conferences were held based on the principles of national cultures, culminating in UNESCO’s involvement, which elevated this issue to the forefront during the National Cultural Policies Conference in Mexico in 1982. This event prompted a French minister to address cultural imperialism, much to the astonishment of a representative from the Third World.
We also witnessed a development in the discourse surrounding national languages, particularly African ones, in response to the marginalization of these languages by major European languages. The series of African language conferences held on the continent marked the beginning of efforts by the Organization of African Unity in the cultural field, resulting from a wave of recognition that national languages should be considered working languages in several countries that had gained independence (such as Swahili in East Africa, Hausa, Wolof, and Fulani in West Africa, and Arabic in the Maghreb, among others).
As a result, important centers for African heritage languages were established across the continent (in Zanzibar, Libreville, Congo, Niger, etc.). This was also supported by UNESCO, reflecting a clear acknowledgment from Africans of the need for cultural development within the framework of the ongoing scientific dialogue surrounding these issues.
It is no coincidence that the cultural field became one of the primary elements around which Arab-African cooperation revolved. The first cultural dialogue seminars regarding Arab-African relations were held in Khartoum and Sharjah in 1976, prior to the establishment of the Arab Bank for Africa and various technical and financial cooperation funds. I recall the intense discussions in Sharjah about the issues in these relations, from representations of Blackness in Arab literature and arts to the history of the slave trade, and even regarding European educational books that persisted until that time.
Perhaps it was this serious dialogue, which transitioned to Amman, Dakar in 1982-1983, Rabat, Cairo, and Cape Town in 1996, that led to the publication of the General History of Africa, financed by Arab-African contributions from the early 1980s. This dialogue also prompted the Arab Organization for Education, Culture, and Science (ALECSO) to seriously collaborate with the Organization of African Unity in establishing cultural agreements, the most significant being the agreement for the establishment of the African-Arab Cultural Institute (AACI), which was signed in 1984, although it did not commence operations in Bamako until 2002.
I liked this documentary study and wanted to share it with readers for its detailed information and dates. We will not stray from our topic about African and Arab heritage and their connection. I just wanted to highlight globalization and how North-South forums have emerged, sponsored by prominent national figures like the late Julius Nyerere and Ahmed Ben Bella. Additionally, Arab-European dialogue forums and the European-Arab-African trilateral dialogue have all aimed to achieve a new global system that respects the rights of Southern countries in development while serving the rights of their cultures in expression
Tensions in Arab-African Cultures
We can begin by stating that popular culture has succeeded where official culture has largely failed in fostering Arab-African relations. At the level of official culture, we still find echoes of historical and contemporary tensions between Arab and African cultures reflected in various forms of intellectual production on both sides.
In this context, we can observe the fields of history, media, and political thought, which are marked by hegemony and mutual perceptions. In the field of history and media, the African perspective often portrays the arrival of Islam in Africa as an Arab or Moroccan invasion, imposing religion and language, and sometimes enforcing certain social conditions and sectarian divisions.
There are prominent scholars, such as the renowned anthropologist Kwesi Prah, who consider Hebrew to be an African language. This topic has sparked significant debate, particularly since the establishment of the Organization of African Unity and has intensified during the drafting of the more recent constitution of the African Union.
Similarly, historical narratives often depict the destruction of African kingdoms by Arab Muslims, notably the destruction of the Ghana Empire to pave the way for the establishment of a pro-Arab and Islamic state, namely the Mali Empire, between the 11th and 13th centuries. Some argue that ancient history emphasizes the kings of Mali, such as Mansa Musa, who generously contributed wealth to the Islamic world, while glossing over others.
As for the issue of the slave trade, it is a topic that warrants considerable discussion. Arabs have faced accusations and vilification that at times surpass the criticisms leveled against the transatlantic slave trade. This criticism has persisted even during celebrations marking two hundred years since the prohibition of the slave trade. Much has been written about the Atlantic slave trade and its destruction of African communities and economies, as well as the dire conditions faced by slaves in the Americas. Nevertheless, this did not prevent the African side from holding a special conference in Cape Town in 2002 focused on the Arab slave trade from the establishment of the Arab state until the rise of Ottoman Islamic authority. The studies presented at this important conference provided both aggressive and objective assessments of the phenomenon, but we did not find the same level of objective explanation and analysis.
Regarding the image of Arabs in history books and educational materials for African generations, as well as in African media—both of which were established during the colonial period—there is much to observe; however, we do not wish to delve deeply into these details here. The methodological issue faced by this topic is the nature of the Arab cultural stance toward African narratives. Modern historians have often struggled to maintain the objectivity necessary to present a scientific analysis in collaboration with their African counterparts. Instead, they have taken a noticeably defensive stance throughout.
Additionally, it can be objectively noted that much of the Arab literature in history and literature continues to insist on addressing elements of these topics while adopting a defensive view aligned with the notion of a civilizing mission, particularly regarding the spread of Islam and Arab culture in Africa. This often reminds African thinkers of the legacy of European writings about the “civilizing burden” of the white man.
As for the spread of the Arabic language and its legitimacy in the continent, Arab researchers have not treated it as a social reality for the peoples living in the continent, who have mingled with other peoples on the same land. This has turned the sociology of language into studies of cultural hegemony.
The reality is that this study is extensive and contains historical points and references that illustrate the relationship of heritage and the convergence of Arabs and Africans. We will now transition to the next section of the study, which discusses representations of reconciliation in popular culture. (Continues)
Read: Eastern Influence on the Western Literature
___________________
Souad Khalil, hailing from Libya, is a writer, poet, and translator. She has been writing on culture, literature and other general topics.
